£121K debt payoff - challenge accepted

savvysarah

Hi everyone. This post has been a long time coming. I've been reading through diary after diary and marvelling at everyone's progress, so I've finally registered and here I am, a shiny new diary. With some very big numbers. Please be kind.

The debt is huge. It is shared between myself and my husband, and we want it gone. Like, yesterday. We've been making poor choices financially all our adult lives and finally, FINALLY the light bulb has lit up for us both - this ends now.

So about me. I'm married, late 30's with 3 (gorgeous, obviously) children under 9. I currently stay at home with the kids, my husband work full time. I may at some point be brave enough to post a SOA but please don't hold me to that!

The good news:
We all (in my home) have our health
We have a home (mortgaged)
My husband has a well paid job

The less good news:
The home needs completely renovating (we bought it before our LBM)
We are £121,000 in debt. This can be broken down into:
Credit cards: £45,000
Loans: 42,000
Cars: 34,000
Our minimum payments total almost £3000 per month.

I have so much more to say, but I feel like this is being brave enough and I'll save the rest for another day! This diary is to help me accomplish what we ultimately want, to bust this debt and get on with the rest of our lives. I want to dive into the community on here, learn from you experienced DFW-ers and stay accountable through this diary. Here goes!!

savingholmes

Welcome to the boards.

Katinkka

Best of luck to you.

[Deleted User]

Welcome to the boards.

Good luck on your journey x

caledonian_princess

I've also got a house that needs a lot of work done on it - they are money sinks aren't they?

Welcome and good luck.

savvysarah

caledonian_princess wrote: »

I've also got a house that needs a lot of work done on it - they are money sinks aren't they?

Welcome and good luck.

Thank you! SUCH money pits - we've modified our plans to keep it as frugal as possible but we still want to do a good job, and we're now trying to cash flow it so it's so slow its ridiculous! Thanks so much for commenting, its nice to have a bit of kindness as I find my feet on here

savvysarah

Thanks so much everyone, its really quite scary posting on here!

A little bit more about me and 'the situation'.

The debt is massive and is made up of credit cards, loans and car finance. we've always had some debt but we tackled it a couple of years ago and it was really going down, then the house purchase ramped it up again. This, along with my car dying and me needing a new one, plus husband moving jobs so no more company car, has all led us to where we are today.

We are paying interest on all the cards right now :eek::eek: and we can't get a 0% balance transfer at this point.

We also have a rental house - we are accidental landlords and would like to sell it but we can't at the moment. Most months this breaks even but recent repairs have meant we have basically received no rent so have been paying two mortgages Repairs are still ongoing too so I'm not hopeful for this months rent either!

I've spent the last few weeks immersing myself in the diaries on here, other debt free fb pages and youtube channels, and I get that this needs to be a mindset thing. Me and my husband have to commit to not taking on any more cc debt, no matter what. This is going to be such a challenge, especially when it comes to the kids but I am so, so determined to do this. I feel like I'm about to start climbing a really difficult mountain but I'm so ready.

First step, surviving November as best we can, which means selling things to raise the cash to avoid using the cards, and making the food in the cupboards last as long as humanly possible. Any tips greatly received!!

Right, I'm off to list a couple of things on fb, and bag up the soup I made for the freezer. Happy Friday!

[Deleted User]

Hi savvysarah,

They are a really friendly bunch here and are very supportive.

Pmo2
xx

Lemon_Tree

Welcome to the boards, I'm also the owner of a money pit and trying to tackle debt.
LT

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Money pit owner here too! Hi and welcome i will be following x

findingthisdifficult

Welcome Sarah, you will find lots of friendly support and tips here. Good Luck on your journey x